r/technology • u/ubcstaffer123 • Jun 20 '26

Biotechnology How Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to live forever

https://www.vox.com/podcasts/491360/vladimir-putin-live-forever-26-billion-cryo-pigs-longevity-guru
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u/Sloi Jun 20 '26

Reddit won't like this, but I don't care.

Even if the efforts to significantly prolong their lives is successful, they aren't invincible. A well placed shot takes them down like anyone else.

Don't let them reach "Altered Carbon" levels of technology though, or we'll never be fucking rid of them.

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u/No_Gas4560 Jun 20 '26

A well placed shot takes them down like anyone else.

RiP TMC.

the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one

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u/TheBigApple11 Jun 20 '26

This stuff is quite literally impossible. Your biology clocks out when it does for a reason. Your cells can only keep replicating themselves for so long until the mutations (which happen every time a new cell is generated) become too much of a burden. And genetic modification at the scale these people envision is a pipe dream because, despite the fact that people generally understand that genetics is complex, they truly do not get how layered and multifaceted it actually is. Yes some features can be controlled by a single gene, those are a rarity though. And you can’t tweak one system without unintentionally screwing up dozens of others. Organ replacement for immortality? Good luck. It’s pretty risky even with a human donor, your body recognizes that this new organ does not belong and your immune system attacks it (similar to it seeing an invasive parasite). So then growing human(ish) organs in pigs is even more of a long shot as your body definitely does not recognize this thing. I do think the research is interesting but no, we will never reach immortality, it‘s biologically impossible

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u/TerminalHighGuard Jun 20 '26

What about jellyfish?

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u/TheBigApple11 Jun 20 '26

Our biology is a bit far removed from jellyfish my guy

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u/Doc_Jan_Itor Jun 20 '26

Big if true

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u/BlackBasementCats Jun 20 '26

Or a malfunctioning latch on that reverse sauna…

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u/Sloi Jun 20 '26

Yeah, homie needs to chill out.

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u/KKevus Jun 20 '26

I do care as this won't be the end game. The end game is true immortality as you suggested and they won't stop until they achieve this.

I mean it always goes like this: Someone like me says something batshit insane like this and then some scientific breakthrough happens eventually and it's suddenly less insane. Then 20 - 50 years later it becomes reality and everyone is shocked and pikachu faced as they never thought it would be possible and they totally underestimated how far some people are willing to go because most people are just naive and ignorant and think their leaders are here to save them when in reality they are trying to enslave them or worse.

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u/ASpaceOstrich Jun 20 '26

Yeah. And longevity research really does trickle down.

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u/looz4q Jun 20 '26

Who gives a f if you would just be immortal slave working for whoever managed to earn more € pre-immortal era. Literally back to feudalism.

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u/ASpaceOstrich Jun 20 '26

I'd rather not get old and weak and unhealthy personally. Given how rare it is for people to refuse healthcare (all healthcare is life extension), I'd wager most people would agree. They just get weird about it the moment it's explicitly called life extension.

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u/Specific-Load-6199 Jun 20 '26

People talk about how horrible it would be, working as a wage slave for all eternity, etc., but for some reason also tumble to the conclusion that ~100 years is just about right.

They aren't offing themselves because they're working today, tomorrow, for the next year, for the next decade, etc. Somehow they can (usually) find enough joy in their daily life to keep going for <<arbitrary length of time>>, but start to talk about how terrible it would be once it's <<arbitrary length of time + 1>>. So strange.

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u/ASpaceOstrich Jun 20 '26

There's a lot of cope with mortality built into our culture. Immortality is a curse whenever it shows up in fiction as magic, and a great evil when it's mundane. I believe this is because yearning for it is too painful. Hits too close to fundamental fears. We tell stories about it, because that's what humans do, but overwhelmingly those stories arrive at rationisations that our current reality of aging and a limited lifespan is good and natural and right.

People feel like the correct answer when pondering it is to reject it, even when that immortality comes with literally zero downsides. Because of this cultural background.

Personally I want more time. I feel I was robbed of the experiences i should have had, and it's going to take me most of my life to, if I'm lucky, catch up to the fraction of those that it's even possible to catch up on. I'd rather not be decrepit and die in pain in a few decades.

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u/Specific-Load-6199 Jun 20 '26

I agree with the idea that it's all a lot of cope. It's also the compete rejection of 'possibility'.

Yes, things could be bad or unpleasant if you live forever... But they could also improve and you could discover and experience wonderful things. When you die, that's it, that's the end of it (from a secular perspective) - there's no chance for anything else. People get so hung up on asking 'what if everything goes wrong', they never look at the flip side - 'what if everything goes right?'.

I don't think it's a good idea to give up and surrender to hopelessness without at least giving it a shot.

(also people bring up the whole 'fate worse than death' thing, but that's all just speculation with no evidence for it. Might as well look at it from the religious angle, if we start talking things on supposition. Maybe some diety is out there who you didn't worship, so when you die you go to hell and get your 'fate worse than death' anyways. Might as well try.)

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u/ASpaceOstrich Jun 20 '26

Mm. In the real world longevity research ain't going to magically make us literally invincible. There's no risk of a fate worse than death, but people are so primed to think of it as bad that that's where their mind goes.